Washington, DC. Eighteen years from now:
Dani gets an invitation from the president of the United States. She goes to the White House and, after her pass checks out, she’s allowed to enter the mansion. She goes into the Oval Office, where she says hi to the President… David!
David cuts to the chase. He wants to know why Dani isn’t with the X-Men, hunting down the Hellions and help bring them to justice. Dani explains that she finds that to be more of a job for the X.S.E. David doesn’t agree, since he knows that the X.S.E. is too busy trying to keep the peace. He wants the X-Men. David calms down, and asks Tessa to fetch the First Lady, as he’s certain that she would love to see Dani, too. She goes.
David offers Dani a seat, and further discusses matters. Dani wants to know if the rumors she heard are true. David explains that he’s on the verge of a new world. He puts on a television screen, which shows a world map, with a red dot on it, which marks a country in East Asia. He explains that but a few countries have all joined the United States, and that they have a hundred percent employment, zero poverty, no disease and no starvation. And it has all been accomplished without ever having to fire a shot. But now comes the hard part, which David truly hates. Dani can’t believe that David is actually going to attack China. David believes that a war with China is a no-win situation.
He has a better idea: he’s going to wipe them out! He believes that, when China falls, the other nations will join America peacefully. Dani still finds it insane, and asks David how he plans to use the missiles, since they will be spotted the second they are in Japanese airspace. David has thought of that: they won’t be spotted if they are teleported inside. He won’t use Nightcrawler, since he won’t have enough power. David has thought of Jeffrey Garret.
He contacts Jeffrey, who’s working in his lab. He reports that he is ready for the mission, but the missiles are not. They’ll need one more day. David gives him that. He reveals to Dani that Jeffrey simply believed in the plan, and that’s why he agreed to do the job. Plus, since the First Lady is around, it wasn’t that big of a deal, since Jeffrey always had a soft spot for her.
Meanwhile, Sage has found the First Lady, namely Noriko, and brings her to David. David himself has enough of Dani’s shouting, and binds her to her chair. He realizes that she must have told the other X-Men about the meeting, but he had already thought of that too. He contacts the X-Men, who are in a satellite in outer space. He puts them on the television screen. David asks Cyclops how things are going. Cyclops mentions that the entire team of X-Men are present in the satellite, but not the Hellions. Scott believes that they have underestimated the entire mission. David smiles, since he knows that he hasn’t underestimated anything. He presses a button on the remote, and the entire satellite with the X-Men in it explodes!
David explains to Dani that he didn’t want to do that, but he knew that she was going to attack him, and an attack upon the president is treason. He knew of the plan the moment Dani walked through his door. He mentions to her that her body has been filled with toxins now, thanks to the chair she sits on, and she maybe has five minutes left to live. He reveals to Dani that he used to love her, and thought of her as his hero. He would have stayed at the school forever, if Dani only showed some of his emotions back to him. Noriko and Sage enter, but, when Noriko sees Dani on the chair, she runs away, using her powers to move faster. David orders Sage to get her back. She comlies.
Elsewhere, Jay is giving yet another successful concert in Los Angeles. He closes it with a love song he wrote long ago, about a loved one he tragically lost. The crowd is amazed, and can’t believe that their parents told them that the public used to hate mutants. Jay can’t even finish the song, as Noriko pulls him away and tells him that they need to talk.
At the same time, in Boulder, Colorado, Sofia has been appointed as the new C.E.O. of her father’s supermarket, since he himself has retired. She gives a speech to the public, but stops when she notices both Jay and Noriko. A few minutes later, they go to Laurie, who’s working on a laptop. They go sit down, where Noriko informs her teammates what her husband did to Dani. She simply believed that David could pull it all off, and wouldn’t drop the bombs and no blood had to be spilled. Laurie mentions that David spilled blood before, and remembers what happened to Josh. Sofia doesn’t think that’s David’s fault.
Laurie doesn’t agree at all, since David traded Josh’s life to cure millions, and now he’s using Dani to bring world peace. She doesn’t see why China would be different. Jay agrees with Laurie, but wonders about how they’re going to handle the situation. The X-Men have been killed by the Hellions, and his powers aren’t what they used to be. Laurie admits that she knows that the Hellions didn’t kill the X-Men. She has been in touch with Kevin, who told her everything. Sofia can’t believe that Laurie is suggesting that they work together, but Laurie sees it as the only way.
Meanwhile, the Hellions are back at their headquarters, where they tear up a campaign poster of David’s. Mercury suggests that they go inside their headquarters, because she realizes that the X.S.E. is going to come after them now that David has blamed them for the X-Men’s death. And she wants to bring the tension down, which has been going over them since they blew up that research lab.
The New Mutants enter the place, and suggest a truce. They argue about David, and the fact that Noriko is with them, who’s David’s wife. Julian tells them to go away, since the Hellions are freedom fighters and don’t want to have anything to do with the president’s allies. Sofia makes it clear to Julian that he and his team have been wanted since before David became president, and that they really are here to work together, since they too see David as a threat now.
Julian still doesn’t want to go back to New York, since the New Mutants weren’t with them when David executed Dust ten years ago. Julian just tells Sofia to shut up, since she shouldn’t be talking to him at all because she threw their marriage away, because she didn’t want to be a criminal like him. Sofia defends herself, but Julian refuses to listen. Noriko makes it clear to everyone that if they don’t stop David, they will be just as guilty for China’s destruction as he is.
The White House: Washington, D.C.
Brian tags himself and enters the White House, where he eliminates the security guards and dismantles the security systems. He reports back to the team but, right after that, gets killed by Quill. The Hellions want to move into the White House, but Rockslide is attacked by Magma. The rest of the X.S.E. arrive as well, and want to arrest the Hellions. Kevin touches Magma and kills her, and so the battle begins. Julian protects him and Kevin with his forcefield, so that they won’t get harmed.
Sofia enters the White House and uses her winds to defeat Quill. The rest of the New Mutants fly in, but are surprised by Sage. She attacks Jay, grabs him by the throat and almost kills him! But Laurie quickly uses her pheromones to make Sage’s body sleep. Noriko dismantles most of the Oval Office’s energy sources and defenses, but since she knows David, he’ll probably have a few surprises installed. They enter the Oval Office. Laurie tries to put David into sleep, but he has been inspecting this moment ever since Josh died, so he prepared himself. He takes out a blaster, which hits Sofia and pulls her outside.
She’s hurt. Julian notices that and runs over to her, but thereby Bishop sees his chance and hits him. But he isn’t hurt, and tends to Sofia. Mercury tries to call for help, but Storm acts faster and uses her powers to make Mercury’s powers go wild. Julian has seen enough, and uses the full potential of his telekinesis and brings Storm down! With himself now immune to Laurie’s powers, David knocks her out.
Kevin touches David in the hope to kill him, but that doesn’t work. David mentions that the white light Kevin saw before he entered the room disabled his mutant powers, just like he always wanted. David grabs Kevin by his neck, and snaps it. Noriko has had enough. She attacks David, but can’t hit him. He laughs. Noriko tells David that she doesn’t need to touch him, and that she loves him. She overloads her electrical powers, and makes the White House explode!
Emma Frost stops her session with David. He’s freaked out and tries to relax. Both Dani and Emma explain to David that none of what just happened was real, and all just illusions made by Dani and empowered by Emma’s telepathy to give David the full experience. Emma reveals that this was what David’s mind is afraid of and why he has the block. She and Dani wanted that David had all the information before he made his decision. David now sees that he isn’t ready for the mental block to be removed, and thanks both ladies. He wants to study and remember everything, so that all of his future achievements will be earned. Dani thanks Emma too for her help, joking that she would never have thought that they would work together one day. Emma just tells her not to push it.
David and Dani walk out together. Dani can’t apologize enough for being so hard on David, but it really was the only way. David says it’s nothing, but isn’t so proud of himself. He asks if Dani saw what he saw. She did. He apologizes for it all. Dani smiles, and asks David for what he apologizes: for killing her or for having that crush on her. David smiles too, and admits that he apologizes for the both. Dani again says that what David saw wasn’t real, so he shouldn’t be sorry. And she thanks him for his affections towards her, but makes it clear that sort of thing can never happen. David knows that, and says that he’s far too smart for ever even trying it. Dani agrees with that, and they both agree to never again bring the word “crush” up again.
Some time later, David goes to tell everything to his roommate, Josh. Josh totally understands why David doesn’t want the block removed but, now that David has seen the potential he has, he hopes that maybe they can safely remove it. But that’s for the future to decide. There’s a knock on the door, and an angry Kevin tells Josh that he wants to talk to him. Now.
Outside the room, Kevin tells Josh that he knows what he and Wolfsbane have been doing last semester. He demands from Josh that he breaks up with Laurie this instance, or else he’s going to tell the entire school what Josh and Rahne had been doing, and then they’ll both be expelled!
